Published: March 30, 2009 06:53 am      

Showing off technology

Greenup students demonstrate changes in education process

LLOYD — A tap on the keyboard sent a pixilated rodent on a frenetic quest for gold rings, while Dustin Thompson tried vainly to explain computer coding to a visitor.

“Variables are the biggest part of game-making,” the Greenup County High School junior said, opening a menu of game components to show how he’d incorporated them into the game.

“Okay...” the visitor said, clearly confused.

Thompson’s project partner, Lauren Cagle, tried to clear things up.

“We had to put all these elements in piece by piece,” she said.

Cagle, also a junior, and senior Chris Thompson worked with Dustin Thompson to develop the game as a class project and were showing it off Thursday at the Greenup school district’s Technology Showcase.

The showcase was a sort of half open house, half science fair night at which students and teachers from all the district’s schools trotted out their best high-tech work so parents and the rest of the community could see what goes on in their classrooms and computer labs.

Popular belief may hold that children use computers and computer games only to turn their brains to mush, but Greenup schools have embraced them as basic learning tools.

“It’s not just all fun,” Cagle said. “We have to think about all this stuff and put it together right.”

Developing the game led to a deeper understanding of scientific principles.

“The more I experiment with game-making, the more I learn about physics,” Dustin Thompson said.

It’s the second year the district has put on the showcase and there were about 200 exhibits there, said Lou Quillen, one of the district’s information technology people.

Parents need to see for themselves the sophisticated devices that are a daily part of their children’s education, Quillen said.

Art class, for instance, no longer depends on paper, watercolors and pencils. Students in Bryan Mosier’s class use computer electronic styli on computer drawing tablets to generate images. He can teach the same skills using software as he can with traditional materials but with more opportunity to engage directly with the students.

After the initial investment, computer art tools can actually save money because the district doesn’t need to budget for art supplies, and it also eliminates cleanup, he said.

Each of the schools in the district had competitions from which winning projects were selected for the showcase.

One of them was Mackenzie Dunaway’s digital yearbook.

The McKell Middle School eighth-grader used digital publishing software to put the yearbook together. It includes photo collections of all three grades at her school.

She spent a month on the project and in the process thinks she may have found a career.

“It’s showing me opportunities I could have. I never knew I could do this for a job,” Dunaway said.

Fifth-grader Uriah Brown threw a little community service in with his project to restore old photographs digitally.

Checking with a local nursing home, he found some residents who had old pictures that were torn or faded. Using photo software, he scanned and removed the defects.

“It could be a really good job,” he said.

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.